Ride-hailing platform Namma Yatri is in the early stages of exploring its expansion into the US market in collaboration with multiple unions. This is as per a report by Moneycontrol.
Despite reportedly being in talks with multiple unions, Namma Yatri's current focus remains on its expansion plans in India.
Namma Yatra at present operates in Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
“The firm is in talks to expand into the US markets. They want to do it in collaboration with unions to help them get that edge over Uber or Lyft in the region,” a source aware of the matter reportedly told Moneycontrol.
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Juspay which spun off Namma Yatri into a separate business in April will be backing the company for the company’s expansion into the US.
Biju Mathew, co-founder of the New York Times Workers Alliance, which was founded in 1998 and consists of 25,000 members, spoke to money control about Namma Yatri's expansion into the US. Mathew reportedly said that the US, similar to India, is dominated by Uber and Lyft in the cab market.
“In India, there were only two apps (Uber and Ola) that were hegemonic and established control over the market, but in the last two years, four- five new apps, including Namma Yatri, have entered the market, and a similar thing will happen in the US market as well,” Mathew reportedly said.
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Recently, Namma Yatri raised $11 million in its pre-series A funding round. The funding was led by Blume Ventures and Antler with participation from Google and several other investors.
Namma Yatri was founded by Juspay in collaboration with Nandan Nilekani's BECKN Foundation and supported by Bengaluru's Auto Rickshaw Drivers' Union (ARDU) in November 2022. It seeks to offer an alternative to Ola and Uber in the country.
